Charles has been busy again. He took the time to count how many shows are in each directory in the members area and home page and made it into a nice spreadsheet for us. This has replaced our original show listing page linked from the home page.

You're welcome Brad. I enjoyed the challenge. It's good to be able to contribute something towards the preservation of the OTR on the site. That's something that all of us do in one way or another I think. Whether by uploading shows, maintaining a site (like MysteryShows.com) or downloading and burning copies of the files. Preserving them not only for ourselves, but for the future as well. It's nice to think that perhaps these shows will still be available 100's of yrs from now for downloading from the net (or whatever has replaced it by that point). After all, in a sense we're all custodians of OTR.

Although initially helpful I was looking for something that showed the next level of detail(s), (I hope the person that produced it used some tools to do the counting...big job to do it manually).

I was wondering if it would be possible to get a text file listing of the entire directory structure (something like the unix "find . -print" for example)...ie all shows and all episodes in one file, one episode per line.

Having such a listing would not only allow us (or at least me) to identify episodes we already have, but would also help to identify episodes that I/We have but MYSTERYSHOWS.COM does not have....ie something we have collected or traded elsewhere.

I basically did something like this when I first joined some time ago by parsing all the HTML with a script, but there are multiple levels and it took some manual steps when there were directories
within directories. directories = Folders.

I was thinking of writing some sort of program or scripts to keep up to date with shows I want, whats new ... and have the program make a script to download them (of course using a one at a time approach and what I have done with my scripts....sleeping the script for a few minutes in between episodes so others can get in and not overload the server).

Although initially helpful I was looking for something that showed the next level of detail(s), (I hope the person that produced it used some tools to do the counting...big job to do it manually).

I was wondering if it would be possible to get a text file listing of the entire directory structure (something like the unix "find . -print" for example)...ie all shows and all episodes in one file, one episode per line.

Having such a listing would not only allow us (or at least me) to identify episodes we already have, but would also help to identify episodes that I/We have but MYSTERYSHOWS.COM does not have....ie something we have collected or traded elsewhere.

I basically did something like this when I first joined some time ago by parsing all the HTML with a script, but there are multiple levels and it took some manual steps when there were directories
within directories. directories = Folders.

I was thinking of writing some sort of program or scripts to keep up to date with shows I want, whats new ... and have the program make a script to download them (of course using a one at a time approach and what I have done with my scripts....sleeping the script for a few minutes in between episodes so others can get in and not overload the server).

Thanks
/Jim

I think I tried this one other time. I don't have shell access to the server. I'll look into it though.

I think the listing I came up with does still serve a useful purpose though. It kinda gives an overview of what is on the site and provides an at a glance idea of how many shows there are available under a given title.

I think the listing I came up with does still serve a useful purpose though. It kinda gives an overview of what is on the site and provides an at a glance idea of how many shows there are available under a given title.

Yes. It is a great resource for our club. We all appreciate your hard work. People sharing is what makes this club fun for everyone.

I think the listing I came up with does still serve a useful purpose though. It kinda gives an overview of what is on the site and provides an at a glance idea of how many shows there are available under a given title.

crich70 -- I didn't mean to imply that your listing was not useful, I apologize if it sounded that way. My thought process was that with the type of listing I mentioned:
1) Because what you started was useful, it is also useful to maintain it, that is keep it up to date and I thought that could be produced automatically, cutting down on workload if you maintain it, or Brad.
2) More information could be gained...if I share the program for example, any two users could "compare" their files with each other and/or the server.

I have some 53,000 (non-music) audio files and I use a method like this to
compare my original and backup for consistency. I also wrote some programs to parse my itunes xml files to give me output in html by song, what play lists they are on (something itunes doesn't tell you).

BRAD - I'll bet such a listing could be produced using PHP...I might give it a shot and maybe if you like it you could add it to the website to produce the listing (run once when you update, and leave behind both the file I was looking for and the table is crich70's format).

I think the listing I came up with does still serve a useful purpose though. It kinda gives an overview of what is on the site and provides an at a glance idea of how many shows there are available under a given title.

crich70 -- I didn't mean to imply that your listing was not useful, I apologize if it sounded that way. My thought process was that with the type of listing I mentioned:
1) Because what you started was useful, it is also useful to maintain it, that is keep it up to date and I thought that could be produced automatically, cutting down on workload if you maintain it, or Brad.
2) More information could be gained...if I share the program for example, any two users could "compare" their files with each other and/or the server.

I have some 53,000 (non-music) audio files and I use a method like this to
compare my original and backup for consistency. I also wrote some programs to parse my itunes xml files to give me output in html by song, what play lists they are on (something itunes doesn't tell you).

BRAD - I'll bet such a listing could be produced using PHP...I might give it a shot and maybe if you like it you could add it to the website to produce the listing (run once when you update, and leave behind both the file I was looking for and the table is crich70's format).

Just a thought.

/Jim

After crich70 gave me the list, I've used it for our main list of shows. I keep it updated whenever I add shows. You can find it linked from the home page. Or see it here:

Essentially yes....it is only then that you can see if you have all the episodes of a specific program. My assumption being that the file names are named in such a way as to describe the program (usually the directory name) and then the episode (with some sort of date format and title).

I think the listing I came up with does still serve a useful purpose though. It kinda gives an overview of what is on the site and provides an at a glance idea of how many shows there are available under a given title.

Yes. It is a great resource for our club. We all appreciate your hard work. People sharing is what makes this club fun for everyone.

Brad

Thanks Brad. I agree with you too that the sense of community we all get by sharing this hobby of ours is one of the great benefits of it.

I think the listing I came up with does still serve a useful purpose though. It kinda gives an overview of what is on the site and provides an at a glance idea of how many shows there are available under a given title.

crich70 -- I didn't mean to imply that your listing was not useful, I apologize if it sounded that way. My thought process was that with the type of listing I mentioned:
1) Because what you started was useful, it is also useful to maintain it, that is keep it up to date and I thought that could be produced automatically, cutting down on workload if you maintain it, or Brad.
2) More information could be gained...if I share the program for example, any two users could "compare" their files with each other and/or the server.

I have some 53,000 (non-music) audio files and I use a method like this to
compare my original and backup for consistency. I also wrote some programs to parse my itunes xml files to give me output in html by song, what play lists they are on (something itunes doesn't tell you).

BRAD - I'll bet such a listing could be produced using PHP...I might give it a shot and maybe if you like it you could add it to the website to produce the listing (run once when you update, and leave behind both the file I was looking for and the table is crich70's format).

Just a thought.

/Jim

No offense taken. Though I imagine such a detailed list would be a monster to keep up to date or sort through fairly quickly. Though I could be wrong about that if it was formatted the right way I suppose.

No offense taken. Though I imagine such a detailed list would be a monster to keep up to date or sort through fairly quickly. Though I could be wrong about that if it was formatted the right way I suppose.

crich70,

You are in fact correct about it being a monster, but that in fact is exactly representative of the number of episodes out there on the server, and thus a monster of a job to produce and maintain if done by hand.

As for sorting, there are several techniques that could make it easy. One being to build the list sorted, then parse the list to output an html file. The other in languages like php you can just put it all into an array and tell php to sort it . The considerations are trade off between memory and cpu time Thirdly most websites have database engines (mysql) that are very good at things like this. Producing the list into a database opens lots of possibilities to "tag" the files with extra information such as descriptions, size, bit rate, play time, quality rating/comments.

There is in fact almost no effort to keeping it up to date. You run the program and it outputs what you want (ie the count list like you created, and just about anything else you want, like a full listing, searches of partial names, shows tagged between certain dates, shows of certain quality rating, even producing the web pages of the site with the links....I could go on and on).

I write software for a living and sometimes web work so the possibilities are endless......thanks for a great discussion.

Sounds interesting. I did my initial list (which Brad has since updated I don't know how many times ) by just typing the show titles into one spot on the spreadsheet and then going to the separate folders and noting down how many files there were in each. I don't recall how long it took me but it was several hrs at least typing it in by hand. I did another spreadsheet that's elsewhere on the site (also by hand) by referring to my own personal copy of "On The Air." What your talking about sounds more like a database to compliment the site. Am I right?

Sounds interesting. I did my initial list (which Brad has since updated I don't know how many times ) by just typing the show titles into one spot on the spreadsheet and then going to the separate folders and noting down how many files there were in each. I don't recall how long it took me but it was several hrs at least typing it in by hand. I did another spreadsheet that's elsewhere on the site (also by hand) by referring to my own personal copy of "On The Air." What your talking about sounds more like a database to compliment the site. Am I right?

Right...and then some....

You can think of a database as an addition to a site (which somewhat makes it separate)....or you can think of a database as an integral part of a site. In the later, the database is used to produce pages on the site.

So when someone wants to see a listing of the shows, you (in the code) ask the database for the show titles sorted by (title) and the code displays the results...often within the framework of a template so you can have header and footer before and after the listing.

If they want a page like you produced, you ask the for database firstly for the list of shows, and then in a loop for each show, ask the database how many entries it has, and the code outputs the results in a table.

It becomes possible to ask the database for the results based on any number of criteria and the template pages are used to display them.
For example show where:

The description field contains "vampire".
The title contains "goldfish".
The author is "Wells".
The date added to the site is after "2011-05-15".
The number of episodes is less than 15.
The air date is between "1941-12-01" and "1942-01-01".
Other users have rated the show or episode 5 stars.
The category is "Adventure".
A cast member is "Rene".
The play time is "15 minutes"
The quality rating is greater than "5".
The bit rate is less than 32k Hz.

I was thinking that it would be possible for Brad (and / or other designated moderators) to allow users to update the database, further adding to the value of the site. Lets say you listen to a show that previously has no description, you could submit a description, rating and other info, and then a moderator could "approve it". Over time the site becomes a better and better resource (aka wikipedia).

With your own individual sign on, you could rate (aka netflix) shows and episodes. The website could then offer you other shows that you might like. Additionally you might make your list "public" and new users might come along and find your list useful because you have similar tastes and have been listening longer. Long time listeners could get a ranking of other users whose ratings are similar to theirs and open discussions in a forum about what they liked. Again with your sign on, you could indicate which shows you "Have" and select a setting that excludes those from results you get, so that you can have to opportunity to look at things you don't have in your collection. Visa Versa you could look in your collection for episodes not yet on the server.

Of course all this would take time....but once you get over the initial "hump" additional features become easier as most of the "code" is already there.

I wonder could an executable program be constructed that would scan the contents of a folder on a CD or DVD that contains mp3's of OTR and use that data to produce a basic listing of what OTR episodes a person has in their collection? Perhaps something that would be able to link with an online database to show which programs a person doesn't yet have? Something that could do that would be very useful I would think. It would help in updating private collections at the least.

I wonder could an executable program be constructed that would scan the contents of a folder on a CD or DVD that contains mp3's of OTR and use that data to produce a basic listing of what OTR episodes a person has in their collection? Perhaps something that would be able to link with an online database to show which programs a person doesn't yet have? Something that could do that would be very useful I would think. It would help in updating private collections at the least.